Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to water safety gear including life vests and integrated rescue products, adapted for use by scuba divers, and more particularly to a system having sequential deployment of a tank mounted counterweight, a forward buoyant chamber, and/or a partial ballast release combined with multiple visual and audible alerting devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Non-releasable tank mounted ballast as disclosed in issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,516,233 and 5,855,454 (xe2x80x9cthe ""233 and ""454 Patentsxe2x80x9d), the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, is significantly advanced by the disclosure herein of a neutral airway protective device. Patents cited in the ""233 and ""454 Patents illustrate: tank mounted ballast, issued BC with horse collar and with hybrid personal floatation device xe2x80x9cPFDIxe2x80x9d (neoprene+inflatable component), and soft pouch.
Two of the primary complaints that have obstructed the fixed counterweight/ballast""s airway protection from being embraced by all divers are (1) unacceptable deterioration in underwater diving comfort, and (2) loss or reduction of releasable ballast. During the first half of the dive, the non-releasable tank mounted counterweight, shown in the ""233 and ""454 Patents, is affixed to the rear of the tank, and thus, continually attempts to roll the diver over underwater, either left or right.
Numerous scuba diving fatalities occur in training or during the first year of diver experience. For these divers, their gear must be setup BEFORE they start a dive with a fixed counterweight which provide 100% reliable airway protection from the beginning to the end of their dive, independent of any action on their part. By analogy the beginning sky diver is protected from fainting or panics, by being attached to the plane and thus their gear will protect them if they fail to operate the rip cord for any reason. By sharp contrast, the advanced sky diver, only after the acquisition of experience, is allowed to assume full responsibility for opening their parachute. If the advanced sky diver faints or panics and consequently fail to pull their rip cord, death is nearly inevitable with the exception of in air rescues or acts of God. The free sky diver accepts the consequences of configuring their gear such that it transfers to them 100% responsibility for pulling their rip cord. Similarly, the advanced scuba diver for comfort and performance reasons may insist on diving a face down dive jacket i.e. a dive jacket that stabilizes the diver in an airway submerging surface position 90% of the time. In fact many advanced scuba divers absolutely refuse to dive with an attached fixed counterweight because its deterioration of comfort and performance exceed their desire for airway protection.
After unacceptable deterioration in dive comfort, the second most common reason divers refuse routine use of airway protective counterweighting is the loss or marked reduction of releasable ballast. This rejection of reliable airway protection is most often heard from warm water divers who do not require buoyant thermal protection and therefore they maybe diving with very little ballast on their weight belts. The addition of a counterweight as required to provide reliable surface airway protection can equal or exceed the amount of ballast currently worn by some divers as a function of tank buoyancy, diver body types, and selected gear. Even if the counterweight does not exceed the diver""s total weight, there is often concern regarding the counterweight""s conversion of any releasable weight belt ballast into non-releasable tank-mounted ballast. Their position fears the loss of the diver""s ability to rapidly gain positive buoyancy as occurs when the weight belt is dropped. Some instructors teach that the value of releasable ballast in accident prevention exceeds the value gained from improved airway protection.
Deployment of a diver""s Personal Flotation Device (xe2x80x9cPFDxe2x80x9d) results in rapid and nearly irreversible shift towards excessive buoyancy. Only if the diver is in sufficient control to disconnect the quick release inflation hose or to detach and release the PFD itself at depth, can the diver reverse the impact of the PFD""s deployment on their ascent rate. The PFD""s deployment at depth will add enough net buoyancy to expose the diver to an increased risk of accelerated ascent rates, rates where even with the diver""s glottis open, certain areas of the lungs may not able to safely depressurize. Since alveolar wall rupture occurs with pressure differential as low as 3.5 fsw, this relatively small differential can build up due to inconsistencies in pulmonary parenchyma in which collapse of small airways obstructs down stream alveoli, which then rapidly over inflate and rupture.
Alveolar rupture, introduces gas emboli into the arterial blood supply creating Arterial Gas Emboli (xe2x80x9cAGExe2x80x9d). These gas bubbles proceed to all organs but the tissues most sensitive to even transient hypoxemia are the coronary and central nervous system. Coronary and Cerebral Arterial Gas Emboli (xe2x80x9cCCAGExe2x80x9d) obstructs end organ blood flow, infarcting down stream tissue. The primary presentation of Cerebral AGE is Loss Of Consciousness (xe2x80x9cLOCxe2x80x9d) which renders the diver unable to participate in protecting his or her airway, making the distressed diver total dependent upon their dive gear. Cerebral AGE with its ability to infarct the brainstem which drives respiration and other vital physiology, is clearly associated with repeated, unpredictable, and untreatable fatalities that occur during buoyant ascent. The U.S. Navy, even under ideal conditions such as in buoyant ascent training in water filled tubes with on-line decompression chambers for the immediate treatment of CCAGE, suffered so many fatalities that non-war time ascent training was terminated because of it""s untenably lethality. Director of National Underwater Accident Data Center estimates that 50% of diver fatalities begin as CCAGE, but the secondary filling of the lungs with water, inadvertently leads to the identified cause of death by the coroner as drowning. Thus, the numerous efforts disclose, the requirement to safely separate the high lift surface buoyancy needs of the PFD chamber from the low lift buoyancy needs of the underwater buoyancy compensation chamber.
In view of the above, it is therefore to the effective resolution of the aforementioned problems and shortcomings that the present invention is directed.
The present invention provides for a combined ballasting and buoyancy device which allows a diver to simultaneously add a 6 lb counterweight and a 6 lb cervical pillow, to provide a neutral airway protective positioning system that is capable of improving the diver""s chance of reducing equipment stabilized airway submersion. In diving, a rigorous water intensive activity, where 50% of the drownings occur at the surface, the improvement in airway protection constitutes a marked innovative advance in diver safety. The disclosed device overcomes the above-described complaints that have obstructed the fixed counterweight""s airway protection from being embraced by all divers. The break away counterweight stows the counterweight in an inactive state close to the diver""s axis of rotation until released. The disclosed addition of an adjustable but preset buoyant device offsets the counterweight""s ballast, allowing the diver to retain the same size releasable weight belt. In a preferred embodiment, the buoyant device places a small bladder right behind the diver""s neck optimizing clearance above the waters surface and hyper-extending the neck to facilitate self rescue, thus, further improving the reliability of airway protection in the event of diver distress. The bladders simplicity of design, operation and construction reduces it chances of rupture or failure supplying an unprecedented level of redundancy to airway protection.
The disclosed break away counterweight allows the diver both dive performance and improved airway protection based on the diver""s confidence that they are capable of pulling the rip cord in the event of an emergency. For the advanced diver who steadfastly refuses to dive with a counterweight the current product fills a life threatening void.
Some of the advantages of the various embodiments of the present invention include, but are not limited to (1) providing an inflatable PFD with, a releasable Ballast member and/or non-releasable Ballast member; (2) providing a Combined Ballast and Buoyancy Device with (a) Independent single or multiple ballast means; (b) Multiple Position Ballast means, (c) Inflatable or inherently independent buoyant means; and (d) Dual Position ballasting means that stows closer to the longitudinal axis of rotation to be released dropping to a second, posterior point of attachment where the same amount of ballast supplies sufficient energy in combination with attached buoyancy to supply an airway protective righting moment; (3) Ballast means single or multiple, attached by fabric, spring steel, or rigid arm that can occupy two or more different radii from the combined axis of rotation; (4) A combined ballast and buoyant device that can be adjusted to be neutral, buoyant or negative as needed to balance the diver""s gear. Through its adjustable specific separation of the ballast and buoyant moments within the device it creates a single stabilized surface position; (5) Combined ballast and buoyant device that non-releasably attaches the specific ballast and buoyancy required, by particular diver and his or her gear, to orient in gravity all other sources of attached ballast and buoyancy into a single stabilized righting moment or heads up direction when the diver is unable to maintain heads up positioning; (6) A combined ballast means and buoyant means used to balance all other attached buoyancy and ballast, thereby supplying a single stable surface position, either across the entire dive or only upon release. The buoyant means can be either bladder or foam that can be adjusted to provide, for example, 2, 4 or 6 lbs lift independently or in combination with a fixed non-releasable tank mounted counterweight, or in combination with a multi-position dual function ballast means; (7) in one embodiment, an orally inflated bladder that is built into the diver""s jacket or added on to an existing jacket to create or focus the buoyant energy about the diver""s neck. The bladder could be inflated by compressed gas either in an auxiliary cylinder or from the diver""s air supply. If attached to the diver""s air supply further inflation could be provided during, at the end or in an emergency; (8) in another embodiment, the fixed buoyant means could be supplied by the partial inflation of float or raft such as might be stowed in the diver""s jacket, additionally serving to pad the diver from the rigid air cylinder; (9) once the 4 to 6 pounds of cervical flotation is contained additional buoyancy can be added between the diver and tank, along the sides of the tank or in the shoulder straps or chest area. One such combination would allow closed cell foam to be layered beneath the shoulder traps where its buoyancy contributes primarily to the heads up moment; (10) Additional buoyant means provided by bladders or foam could be located along the tank close to the axis of self rescue rotation. In this position the offset buoyancy""s contribution to stabilized airway submersion is reduced relative to the buoyant moment created by the BC which is further outboard and therefore on a longer arm where pound for pound it powerfully creates stabilized airway submersion. In particular, certain buoyancy compensators, such as those with large back mount bladders require very large counterweights, in the range of 18 to 20+ lbs, to achieve 100% airway protection. Comfortable airway protection can be achieved by placing 6 lb by the neck area, moving 12 lbs of the buoyant moment in towards the axis of rotation by use of bladder or foam, adding 30% (6 lb) fixed counterweight to the back of the tank and, 70% (12 lb) dual position counterweight. Thus, the diver redistributes 18 lbs of buoyancy and 18 pounds of ballast, maintains their previous releasable ballast and achieves a 100% reliable airway positioning; (11) Inherently buoyant material or inflatable Bladder can be used to: (a) only offset the ballast needed to protect the diver""s airway, i.e. allow the diver to maintain the same size releasable weight belt prior to adding the neutral buoyant ballast and buoyant device, (b) sized to provide greater than or equal to 4 lbs lift, the published minimum needed to position the diver""s nose and mouth above the surface of the water, and (c) position by design and location to wrap around and support the flaccid diver""s neck in the optimal surface position; (12) counterweight and the buoyancy needed to support the neck. When the device provides the 4 lbs net buoyancy or when combined with other dive gear providing the diver with 4 lbs net buoyancy such as from buoyant thermal insulation or inflatable dive jacket; (13) A scuba tank adapted to non-releasably attach a portion of the divers ballast, first close to the diver""s axis of rotation where it functions as a ballasting means then released where the same ballast supplies the energy to rotate the diver; (14) Release means can be a combination of manual or automatic with manual override. A release mechanism in which the pouch that is contains high density particulate matter such as metal shot has mounting means on the side facing the tank so the attachment point is tangential to the circumference of the tank. Allowing attachment that does not produce elevation of straps above the tank where they might snag kelp; (15) Pouch to contain a stiffener to keep pouch from flopping away from the surface of the tank; and (16) Strap for attaching pouch to the tank that has anterior posterior positioning means so that the ballast can be adapted to a wide variety of dive jacket designs. Hook and loop turning through an opening in the pouch allows the ballast to be infinitely positioned along the anterior-lateral face of the tank. Alternatively, a series of receptacles arranged around the circumference of the tank band could receive a pin attaching the ballast in a variety of positions.
Thus, a water safety and survival system is disclosed that provides a multi-chambered personal flotation device and break away counterweight that provides a heads-up righting moment that reliably positions a scuba diver with his/her airway out of the water when at the surface, and provides for a comfortable heads down position during the dive. The scuba diver retains full control and responsibility for conversion of the equipment from face down flotation into face up flotation. The break away counterweight stows the ballast needed to heel the diver into a heads up position in an inactive state, close to the diver""s longitudinal axis of rotation. Once released, the counterweight drops away from neutralized central attachment near the diver""s axis of rotation out towards the counterweight""s posterior attachment point. The counterweight then becomes capable of actively rolling the distressed diver""s face out of the water into the heads up position. The counterweight is preferably utilized in conjunction with a buoyancy compensator that further provides for rotation of the diver into a heads up orientation, and that can provide buoyancy compensation for the counterweight. A SCUBA diving personal flotation device combined with buoyancy compensator relying upon redundant and reversible dual position dual function break away counterweight/keel is also provided by the present invention.
In accordance with these and other objects which will become apparent hereinafter, the instant invention will now be described with particular reference to the accompanying drawings.